U.S. President Donald Trump said negotiations to end the Ukraine war will start “immediately” after holding a “lengthy and highly productive” telephone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday morning.
CNN reports that the call came as Trump makes clear to his advisers he wants to bring the Ukraine conflict to a swift end.
Now, as the two leaders resume communication after a long period of silence between the White House and Kremlin, the contours of Trump’s settlement plan are reportedly coming into clearer focus.
“We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other’s Nations. We have also agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately, and we will begin by calling President Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now,” Trump wrote in a post on social media platform Truth Social,, according to CNN.
Euronews reports that Trump wrote in the same post that he had asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of the CIA John Ratcliffe, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, and Ambassador and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, to lead the negotiations.
Soon after his conversation with Putin, Trump spoke with Zelenskyy, who later posted on X saying the two talked “about opportunities to achieve peace, discussed our readiness to work together at the team level,” according to Euronews.
“I think President Putin wants peace and President Zelenskyy wants peace and I want peace,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, according to Al Jazeera.
Trump said that he would “probably” meet in person with Putin in the near term, suggesting that a meeting could take place in Saudi Arabia.
Russian media reports say Putin and Donald Trump, have held their first official phone talks since the US leader was sworn into office on January 20.
TASS says the heads of state discussed stopping hostilities in Ukraine, bilateral relations and some other issues. They also agreed to continue communication and hold a face-to-face meeting.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was cited as saying that Putin supported one of Trump’s main ideas that it is time for our countries to “work together”. Putin and Trump reportedly agreed to set up a face-to-face meeting and the Russian president invited his U.S. counterpart to visit Moscow.
Putin said Russia is ready to receive US officials specializing in areas of mutual interest, including the Ukrainian settlement.
The parties also discussed the Middle East settlement, the Iranian nuclear program and Russian-US economic relations, Peskov said.
TASS reports that these were the first official phone talks between the leaders since Trump was sworn into office on January 20. The New York Post earlier reported that there was another conversation between Putin and Trump, but the Kremlin neither denied nor confirmed the report.
Putin and Trump had previously spoken with each other on July 23, 2020, according to the Kremlin. No other communication between them had been officially reported since then until Wednesday.
